A different stimulus packaged

"All literature, all philosophy, all history bounds with incentives to noble action, incentives which would be buried in black darkness were the light of the written word not flashed upon them...I am a votary of literature, and make the confession unashamed; shame belongs rather to the bookish recluse, who knows not how to apply his reading to the good of his fellows, or to manifest its fruits to the eyes of all... (Reading) gives stimulus to our youth and diversion to our old age; this adds a charm to success, and offers a haven of consolation to failure. In the home it delights, in the world it hampers not. Through the night- watches, on all our journeying, and in our hours of country ease, it is our unfailing companion." Roman orator and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Books - read and appreciated as a source of knowledge directed to the good - are indeed a precious stimulus package.

Ironically, Francesco di Petracco ( Petrarch), poet, around 1333, traveled extensively searching for the lost writings of Cicero so that he could collect and preserve them. Around 1346, he said:

"Maybe I have more (books) than I need, ... but it is the same with books as with everything else - success finding them spurs one on to greed for more. There is moreover something special about books; gold and silver, jewels and purple raiment, marble halls and well-tended fields, pictures and horses in all their trappings, and everything else of that kind can afford only passing pleasure with nothing to say, whereas books can worm the heart with friendly worlds and counsel, entering into a close relation ship with us which is articulate and alive."